Not Forgotten
Not Forgotten: Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel [3]
After an interesting debut and a flop follow-up, Peter Gabriel had to pull out all of the stops for his third album. Too many frontmen had gone solo, released a solo album which sold reasonably well because it was bought by the previous band’s fanbase and then saw their second album bomb, leaving the artist …
Not Forgotten: Half Man Half Biscuit – Trouble Over Bridgewater
Often over-looked and misunderstood, Trouble Over Bridgewater found itself wedged between two of Half Man Half Biscuit’s best albums, Four Lads Who Shook The Wirral and Cammell Laird Social Club. It can come across as a strangely inconsistent beast, however it unarguably contains some of HMHB’s most memorable moments, with Nigel Blackwell delivering a hilarious …
Not Forgotten: Madness – The Dangermen Sessions Vol 1
In the eighties Madness were massive; kids loved ’em, your gran loved ’em. They scored hit after hit. While The Specials were personifying the grim zeitgeist of Thatcherite Britain in a parked car, Madness were dressing as garden gnomes and swinging from high wires. They were the nutty boys who became the lost boys, and …
Not Forgotten: Elton John – Elton John
Elton John’s eponymous second effort is pretty much where things started taking off for him. Originally intended as effectively a shop window to display the diverse writing talents of the Elton John and Bernie Taupin song writing team, and convince other acts to cover their material, Elton’s second album wasn’t recorded with the intention of making the former …
Not Forgotten: Rick Wakeman – The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
My Mum’s copy of The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table was the first Rick Wakeman album I heard when I was 14, and it blew my mind. Being the type of kid who was fascinated by myths, legends and folklore, and was developing an ear for prog rock, this was very …
Not Forgotten: Zombie Zombie – plays John Carpenter
This 5 track mini-album from 2010 is a synth slice of sonic delight. French electro-pop duo Zombie Zombie, comprising of Etienne Jaumet and Cosmic Neman (though these days they are a trio, having been joined by a Dr. Schönberg) decided to go for the jugular of their influences. Namely the minimal haunting analogue throb of …
Not Forgotten: Van Morrison – Moondance
Apparently every home should have at least two Van Morrison albums. The spot-on The Best of Van Morrison is one and if the cool-police are to be believed, the other is invariably Astral Weeks. While it’s Astral Weeks that still consistently gets the cool-police in a lather, truth be told I’ve never really fallen under …
Not Forgotten: Kathryn Williams – Little Black Numbers
Kathryn Williams was one of those acts that laid the ground work for the folk revival of the last fifteen years without us realising it at the time. Much like her contemporary Eliza Carthy, there was a certain level of buzz around Kathryn Williams at the end of the 90s, and there were a few publications singing her …
Not Forgotten: Alice Cooper – Welcome to My Nightmare
Splitting from the Alice Cooper band when he did was a gamble for Vincent Furnier, but in retrospect, and probably at the time, the Detroit five piece had achieved all they could by 1974’s Muscle of Love, and the band had started on the downswing. Co-opting the name of the band for his solo career, Furnier solidified …
Not Forgotten: The Magnetic Fields – Realism
The level of self-imposed pressure that Stephin Merritt must have put on himself following the release of The Magnetic Fields’ four hour masterpiece, 1999’s 69 Love Songs, must have been immense. He smartly sidestepped the issue with the next album, 2004’s i, with its beautifully simple concept and alphabetical sequencing, however, where to go after that? I …